Maharashtra: New Academic Schedule Cuts Art, PT Hours To Add Third Language from Class 1

The State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) announced the revised daily academic schedule for schools in Maharashtra on Thursday, June 19. This comes a day after the state government issued a government resolution (GR) making it mandatory to teach a third language in state-run schools.

To fit the third language into the timetable from Class 1, SCERT has changed the number of hours given to each subject. The changes aim to meet the 990 academic hours per year set by the National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

The new schedule has reduced teaching time for art education, physical training, and work experience (now renamed as work education) to make room for the third language. SCERT has kept the teaching hours for core subjects like mathematics and the first and second languages close to the NCF guidelines. However, art education has received only 81.67 hours per year under the new schedule. The NCF recommends 144 hours per year for this subject.

For the first time, SCERT has provided an example timetable to help schools plan their day. While schools are not required to follow this sample timetable, they must follow the subject-wise division of teaching hours. 

According to the SCERT circular, the new daily schedule must be followed by all state board schools across all language mediums. It will be applied to Class 1 from this academic year. It will be introduced in Class 2 from the next academic year. The schedule suggests shorter class periods of 35 minutes, unlike the NCF guideline of 45 to 50 minutes. Schools may combine two periods for some subjects to allow more time.

Interestingly, according to the NCF, the third language should be introduced only from Class 5. As per reports, education experts and school principals have raised concerns. They said the new plan may harm the overall development of students. They pointed out that reducing time for creative and physical subjects could affect students negatively.

The June 17 GR earlier faced criticism for making Hindi the default third language unless 20 or more students in a class chose a different language.